Right-Wingers Are Calling For Military Intervention, Violence to Free Tina Peters

By Matt Cohen

Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters looks on during her sentencing for her election interference case at the Mesa County District Court Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Grand Junction, Colo. (Larry Robinson/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel via AP)

Prominent right-wing figures are calling for the military to free Tina Peters, the Colorado election-denier-turned-MAGA-folk-hero who’s currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for her role in a 2021 voting system data breach, in a failed attempt to find voter fraud.

The escalating rhetoric comes as the Trump administration aims to pressure Colorado officials to transfer Peters to federal custody — and underscores how springing Peters from prison has become a cause celebre among conspiracy-driven far-right activists.

During a Nov. 24 interview with Steve Bannon, Peters’ attorney Peter Ticktin suggested that the president send in the military to free Peters from state prison in Colorado. 

“Do I think that it should be done?” Ticktin asked. “Yeah. I would love to see that happen.”

“This audience would one million percent back you, back the Justice Department, back the Secretary of War, back the President of the United States if we did this tomorrow morning,” Bannon responded. “And that’s the type of thing it’s going to take [to free Peters].”

Ticktin and Bannon aren’t the only conservative figures calling for military intervention to secure Peters’ release. 

Mark Lynch, a South Carolina businessman who’s challenging Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) in the GOP primary, posted on social media that Peters “is rotting in prison in Colorado for trying to maintain a fair election in 2020.”

“Rather than sending in the National Guard to free Tina Peters, we got a cartel boss pardoned,” Lynch wrote, referencing Trump’s recent pardon of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández.

In an anti-semitic screed on social media, far-right podcaster Joe Oltmann called for violence against several Colorado officials, who he claimed are responsible for Peters’ incarceration. 

“Jared Polis, traitor. Phil Weiser, traitor. Dan Rubinstein, traitor. Jena Griswold, pig and traitor. Jorge (sic) Mathew Barrett, pedophile and traitor,” Oltmann wrote, referring to Colorado’s governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, as well as the Mesa County District Attorney and the state judge who oversaw Peters’ case. “The synagogue of Satan Jews stick together as traitors to our nation, to the people of Colorado. They have robbed Tina of her life, the citizens of Colorado of their dignity and hidden in plan [sic] sight a company of demons, Dominion.” 

Oltmann wrote that the officials “deserve to be tried for treason in military tribunals and hang.” 

The fresh calls for Peters’ freedom come after the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) said last week it would not release Peters into federal custody, per a request from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). 

In 2021, Peters allowed unauthorized people into the Mesa County election office and used the stolen identity of a software engineer to copy sensitive election data to post online. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) first launched an investigation into the Mesa County election office when QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins posted screenshots and videos of a Mesa County voting machine — which tied back to Peters. 

Peters was found guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one felony count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and a slew of misdemeanors.

Though CDOC refused to transfer Peters to federal custody, Polis (D) has yet to publicly comment on Peters’ status. Since Peters was convicted on state and not federal charges, only Polis has the power to pardon or transfer her. A bipartisan coalition of Colorado county clerks called out Polis for his silence on the issue. 

“Polis’ indecision, or his refusal to publicly address the decision, is already causing harm to clerks across Colorado,” Boulder County Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick (R) reportedly said during a recent Zoom press conference. 

“The governor welcomes an opportunity to meet with the clerks to hear from them directly and has signed many laws to protect the integrity of our free and fair elections, including increasing penalties for threatening public officials,” a spokesperson for Polis’ office told CBS News.